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Today is July 13th and we are hours away from the 2010 All-Star Game in Anaheim. Earlier in the season, March to be exact, this writer made some predictions as to the major award winners from the MVP to the Rookie of the Year as well as making some guesses regarding the division winners and World Series Champs. Looking back, a second chance is clearly in order.

Okay, so I may have slated the Padres to finish dead last and mocked their pitching, a group who is currently the best staff in the majors And I may have also alluded to Zach Greinke being in a horse race for the AL Cy Young Award. Now, with half the season behind us, more accurate predictions can be made and perhaps I can be the one to make them.

AL Cy Young-Most of the contenders for this award come from the AL East, including John Lester, David Price, Clay Buchholz, Andy Pettitte and my previous choice, C.C. Sabathia. Deep down, however, a dark horse may prevail from the AL West, recently traded Cliff Lee.

Previous winner: Sabathia- Current Winner: Lee

NL Cy Young- This is now a three horse race featuring young Josh Johnson, previous choice, Roy Halladay and our own Ubaldo Jimenez. Tim Lincecum and Adam Wainwright may be able to get into the mix but I’ll take the fifteen game winner as my choice despite a couple rough outings of late.

Previous: Halladay- Current: Jimenez

AL MVP-Previous predictions were fairly off base, but how could have seen the season coming the Justin Morneau, Miguel Cabrera, Robinson Cano and Josh Hamilton are putting together? Frankly, it would be tough to say that any of these four are likely to keep up their torrid paces but Morneau is the best pure hitter of the bunch.

Previous: Alex Rodriguez- Current: Morneau

NL MVP-It is easy to pick Albert Pujols to collect this hardware again and he is turning in another brilliant campaign. Joey Votto is playing great baseball as is David Wright and Andre Ethier. This is a coward’s pick; I’ll take Pujols to continue hitting the way he is rather than the other three continuing theirs.

Previous: Pujols- Current: Same

Rookies and Coaches- Not so far off here. Surprisingly not so far off. Jayson Heyward and Neftali Feliz have lived up to their billing and will remain as Rookie of the Year choices as will Texas’ Ron Washington for AL Coach of the Year (Despite his admitted cocaine use). The big difference will be Bruce Bochy not getting the recognition instead giving way to the immortal Bobby Cox.

As for how the divisions will finish up, there were some hits and misses in the previous predictions. For starters it does not appear that Dan Diego is nearly as bad as previously noted, in fact they are two games in first place at the All Star break. I do see both the Rockies and Dodgers catching them, but I would revamp my opinion and predict Colorado representing the NL West in the playoffs. They should be accompanied by the slow starting Cardinals, the injured Phillies and the upstart Braves. I will stick with the prediction made earlier that the Phillies will represent the NL in the fall classic.

The AL is not so easy. It seems that the Mariners have all but given up on manager Don Wakamatsu and it will be the Texas Rangers out of the West. I still like the Twins out of the Central, but the White Sox may be willing to pull the trigger on a deal to acquire Roy Oswalt or Dan Haren before the trade deadline is gone, and the acquisition of Oswalt could punch the Sox ticket to the post season. The remaining teams should come from the East with the Red Sox, the Rays and the Yankees battling for the final two spots. I like the Rays taking the wild card and the Evil Empire to win the division and the World Series. It was nice, for once, to see the Yankees out bid for once losing Cliff Lee to the Rangers. It is likely, however, that the passing of George Steinbrenner today will motivate the team to win and the Yankees brass to make the requisite moves to acquire another starter for their ball club.